How to train your dragon? One head at a time – sustainable personalised learning in a large healthcare organisation

Emirates Health Services (EHS) is a leading healthcare provider in the Northern and Eastern United Arab Emirates (UAE), owned and operated by the UAE Federal Government. It has over 11,500 employees, 17 hospitals, 68 primary healthcare centers, and several dental and specialised health centers.

The Challenge

A large healthcare organization is like a multi-headed dragon, where the different heads work together to ensure their one body flies in the desired direction. To achieve this, the EHS Training & Development Center (TDC) needed to simultaneously tackle multiple challenges:

1. Ensure alignment of individual learning needs with organizational goals
2. Adequately serve a highly heterogenous workforce, composed of diverse disciplines, specialties, and expertise levels
3. Avail learning opportunities for a workforce dispersed in both space (120+ facilities) and time (24/7 services)
4. Ensure easy access to the latest updates, in an industry with a rapidly developing body of knowledge, without overloading users with irrelevant information
5. Create an engaging learning environment
6. Achieve all the above at a reasonable cost and in a sustainable manner.

TDC needed a solution with a robust base that also allows for customisation and growth, as per organisational needs.

The Solution

Working with a local Technology Partner (Human-Logic), TDC used Totara Learn to develop Maharati (Arabic for “My Skills”).

1.   Individual-organisational alignment

Local and international competency frameworks were adopted or adapted to match EHS needs. Resultant frameworks were then reflected in Maharati, for phased rollout across EHS. The system allowed manager-staff pairs to collaborate in building individualised development plans for each staff member, aligning personal learning needs with EHS organisational goals.

2.   Personalised learning

Artificial Intelligence recommendation engines were integrated into Maharati, providing personalised recommendations based on individual competency needs and learning history.

3.   Easy access to training

Users have access to Maharati anytime, anywhere, and from any device, through their web browser or iOS/Android Maharati apps.

An External Certificates module was also developed allowing users to upload certificates from conferences and external workshops for review and authentication by TDC. Thus, people’s external achievements are reflected in their personal learning records.

4.   Rapid access to information

Knowledge repositories curating training, guidelines, and documents on topics of interest were built into Maharati, enabling fast and effective access to reliable knowledge and updates in an emerging healthcare crisis (COVID-19) or in relation to EHS strategic goals (e.g. Customer Happiness, Antibiotic Stewardship, Mental Health).

5.   Learner engagement

Several features were activated or developed to enhance engagement.

• Workspaces facilitating social learning in journal clubs and National Reading Month (March) activities
• Announcements of activities and new eLearning courses through the Maharati homepage and email notifications
• Customisable login page reflecting key events (Reading Month, Simulation Week, Ramadan)
• Multi-tenancy providing customised unique environments for users in partner organizations (e.g. Ministry of Health and Prevention)
• Trending Courses block informing users of eLearning courses popular among EHS staff

6.   Sustainable knowledge management and cost control

Miller’s pyramid of clinical competence was modified to create an EHS-specific scale for evaluating competencies. An innovative fifth level (Shares Knowledge) was added, supporting TDC’s sustainable knowledge management (and cost-saving) learning strategy.

With a team of inhouse instructional designers and eLearning Developers at TDC, collaboration with internal and external Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) allowed expression of essential tacit knowledge (normally locked in their heads) into explicit knowledge (shareable as eLearning courses, guidelines, or simulation trainings).

The Results

Maharati has seen rapid and accelerating growth over the past three years. So far EHS has created more than 700 eLearning courses in both English and Arabic. It now hosts 28 Knowledge Repositories, with more on the way. Overall user satisfaction with offerings exceeded 90% throughout this period.

To date, Maharati has managed 2+ million contact training hours. Of those, more than 1 million eLearning contact training hours came as a result of the Maharati-enabled knowledge management strategy, bringing about financial savings exceeding $5 million.

Maharati successfully enabled the deployment of highly specialised training, customised to EHS needs, without compromise in quality or speed. For example, when introducing the novel COVID drug Sotrovimab, Maharati allowed us to provide accurate and widely accessible training and documentation on the medication, supporting the UAE to become one of the first countries worldwide providing it.

TDC regularly receives requests from other government and partner organizations for their staff to access and benefit from Maharati. Also, Maharati enabled EHS to collaborate with regulators and volunteer organizations in several national healthcare programs and campaigns. Notable projects include the National Baby Friendly Initiative, and the National Healthcare Support Volunteer Program.

An additional “soft” Maharati success is how it allowed us to discover/uncover many hidden gems and talented individuals with specialised expertise throughout EHS. As a result, EHS today is much better at “knowing what it knows”.

Key lesson

Using open software and working closely with a reputable technology partner provided immense flexibility in deployment, adaptation, and growth. Open software also brings with it significant community experience embedded into the software DNA. We were able to continue from where others reached, rather than start from scratch.